Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A few Wet Socks From The Curate's Line

I don't know. Somehow stories like this never seem to make it onto BBC news.

During the short hearing at Leeds Crown Court, the 60-year-old admitted all the charges read to him by the clerk, some of which were said to relate to images of girls as young as three-years-old. Brown, who was Mayor of Hebden Royd in 2006, was told to sign the sex offenders register before leaving the court on bail which contained one condition of residence at an unspecified address. The former Labour councillor on Calderdale Council was told he would be sentenced on August 25 when all sentencing options would be available. Afterwards, Tim Swift, leader of Calderdale Council's Labour group, said: "It came as a complete shock to us when he was arrested".

Jurors heard that Ben stood out as he was dressed in white and was the only white boy involved in the disturbances involving 60 youths armed with knives, sticks and other weapons.

The court was told Ben was seen fighting with two rivals before being surrounded by others and beaten.

I guess this is one of those 'the way we live now' tales. I'm not casting stones, having some 'previous' myself - just noting (if the surmises are correct - there's always the possibility that may have been the victim of an assault) how very extended adolescence has become since the cultural revolution. The unfortunate deceased was 35.

A maths teacher found crushed to death at a recycling site may have fallen asleep in a wheelie bin after a night out with friends, police fear.

Scott Williams, 35, had spent Saturday night in pubs in Brighton and was last seen at 1am on Sunday. On Monday morning his body was found in among rubbish dropped off by a truck bringing refuse collected in Brighton.

I've noted that Trevor Phillips has excellent political antennae, and was one of the first of the race industrialists to move from multiculturalism to community cohesion, as the post-7/7 government slowly came to terms with the landscape they'd helped create.

As a result he's made a few enemies among those who haven't got with the cohesion programme, and think the old gravy-train is still the best. Note the last, emboldened (by me) sentence. Funny, I thought it was about equality. Do I see a cat being let out of a bag ?

In April three board members resigned after a public assertion by Mr Phillips that the police were no longer institutionally racist. Mr Phillips argued that the police had "shown a much better understanding of how to deliver a public service that doesn't discriminate just because of the colour of your skin" since the botched investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. But this did not go down well with the old guard.

They had already been incensed by his U-turn on multiculturalism – the notion that a diverse society should celebrate the different cultures of its ethnic groups. Multiculturalism, Phillips argued, might actually be counter-productive. Rather than creating a diverse society, he said, it could open social divisions and cause Britain to "sleepwalk towards segregation". The veterans of the race industry were dismayed.

But Phillips was not alone. After 9/11 the Government had became determined to find sets of values and touchstones that could promote a more integrationist view of the politics of race. Tony Blair, with whom Mr Phillips had become friendly via Peter Mandelson – who was best man at Mr Phillips's wedding – began to try to co-opt Muslims into "community cohesion". Gordon Brown became obsessed with Britishness.

To his critics Mr Phillips was doing New Labour's bidding. To his friends he was forming the debate. However, many in the ethnic minority communities were alarmed, arguing that it was his job to defend minorities, not give succour to attacks on them.

A little aside in this Times story by Sathnam Sanghera, on the Cobra Beer troubles. He's right that it's not a conspiracy. It's culture. You can call it PC, call it guilty white liberals, but it's culture :

Which brings me to a third painful truth revealed by the Cobra debacle: Asian entrepreneurs get away with more than most. I don’t mean this in a way to suggest some kind of politically correct conspiracy. But in my experience Asian companies don’t get subjected to as much critical analysis as they should be because: a) a huge number of Asian entrepreneurs are very successful and it is just assumed that they all are; b) the rags-to-riches tale is a seductive and romantic one; and c) people want to write about and hear about Asian entrepreneurs doing well, as it is one of the things that shows that multiculturalism and immigration can work.

As it happens, Lord Bilimoria is not the most extreme example of the phenomenon. This unhappy accolade must go to Reuben Singh, who, as a schoolboy, founded Miss Attitude, the fashion chain, and was listed as the youngest millionaire by Guinness World Records, publicly fêted by Tony Blair, made a government adviser, dubbed “the most powerful man in Britain under 30”, had his picture hung in the National Portrait Gallery and named entrepreneur of the year at various awards ceremonies, but who in 2007 was unmasked as a serial fantasist, branded a “liar” by a judge and declared bankrupt.

Also, as it happens, Bilimoria is not your typical Asian entrepreneur, arriving in Britain with £5 in his pocket and subsequently building a huge company. For all the talk of delivering beer in a 2CV so battered that you could see the road through the floor, he comes from a privileged background. His father was a general in the Indian Army, he left India for England at the age of 19 to train as a chartered accountant, attended Cambridge and speaks with an accent that would make the Duke of Edinburgh sound chavvy.

But his ethnicity was undoubtedly one of the reasons he had a profile that far outstripped his achievements and one of the reasons he was so ludicrously overpromoted, being enobled and, among other things, being made deputy president of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, chairman of the UK-India Business Council and Chancellor of Thames Valley University.